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Mountain Keeping in More Ways than One

Oh my, I must blog! It’s been two days of challenge, excitement, exhaustion–none of which I’ve shared. The exciting news first, namely that I WON the Writing Program’s “Outstanding Instructor Award” and will be singing my personal hip hip hoorays all the way to Vietnam and beyond. To say I’m pleased would be a gross understatement, as I am, in fact, fiddling on the roof and skipping in the streets–hell, I’m fiddling in the streets and skipping on the roof and the latter’s not at all easy.

I don’t know if it could get any better than this, unless, of course, S. were able to come home for the English Department Awards Ceremony on the 22nd, when I will officially be presented with the prize. I guess this is the painful part of our lives right now–not just the separation, but separation during times of celebration. It sucks! But then again, it won’t be long till I’m gone. S. will have been away six weeks on Sunday, but I leave only three weeks from Tuesday.

However, the challenge and exhaustion I alluded to above involve an event sponsored by the Writing Program that I helped organize. An Evening with the Mountain Keepers was a huge success last night. Held in the Student Center Grand Ballroom, there wasn’t an empty seat in the house. People were standing in the back and sitting in the aisles. At one point we even had to bring out extra chairs to help accommodate the crowd. All of this is good news, but at the same time, the event has left me with little energy today. When I woke up this morning my feet were aching and my head was pounding. I was miserable and thankful that the evening, though a wonderful success, was over. Worn out as I was, I had to drag myself out of bed and into the office to pick up ten page student essays, the grading of which will “entertain” me both this weekend and next and every evening in between, way more mountain than I want to keep any evening of any year.